BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - “THE best/good things come in small packages.” This old adage holds true as two popular individuals have made a timely humane gesture in giving back, in a small but very significant way, to several schools in St. Kitts with the aim of preventing an outbreak of the Coronavirus.
Kirth Charles of Autotech Services and Desroy Daniel, both of whom are former students of the Sandy Point Primary and the Charles E. Mills Secondary Schools, have donated a thousand face masks for students of the two learning institutions, as well as for pupils of the Sandy Point Pre-School.
The duo was contemplating on a number of ways of giving back to society and decided that it was best to return a charitable contribution to combat the spread of the virus within the schools.
Charles explained that they decided to start with their alma mater: “We decided that we wanted to make a donation in some way, shape or form. We then came to the conclusion that we will be giving some masks to help in the fight against COVID-19.”
He noted that based on the fact that primary school children are not eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccines, it was suitable for them to first benefit from the donation.
This is a timely donation since there are growing concerns as the Federation’s schools have reopened for face-to-face instructions, and the proprietor reminded that there is still high levels of hesitancy among those within the high schools to take the jab.
“So, we decided that we would want to give something that would help from the non-pharmaceutical levels that would benefit those children. In that sense, we decided that we would give 1,000 masks to the primary school, the high school and the preschool,” the veteran mechanic explained.
The donation was made on Tuesday (Sept. 7) and he believes that the time has come for more private sector entities and the wider civil society to play their part to ensure the children, who are the next generation of leaders, are protected from the virus.
There has been a recent outbreak of the virus within several primary and secondary schools across the Federation, and many people believe that similar gestures could go a long way in benefiting those children.
Based on the feedback from the three learning institutions visited, the mission to give back is warming the heart.
“We want to say thanks to them, and we plan to make other donations to various other educational institutions around the island,” revealed Charles.
He added that the CEMSS would also benefit from its annual Speech Day when the two entrepreneurs would again make a donation.
Moreover, Charles reiterated his appeal for other business entities and organisations to partner and assist the primary schools, since the children are vulnerable to easily contracting the virus.
Currently, only children aged 12 and above are eligible for the Pfizer Vaccine.
